US President-elect Donald Trump has unveiled plans for his first 100 days in office, promising as a first step to scrap the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, cancel environmental restrictions put in place by President Barack Obama, have the Labor Department investigate federal worker visas and impose broad new bans on lobbying by government employees.
The president-elect described the 12-nation pact as a “potential disaster for our country.” He has also said he wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.
The six items that president elect unveiled are to some extent easy to go with as they require only Trump’s signature and do not need Congressional approval.
Some of the biggest promises made by Trump during his campaign including promises to build a wall along the Mexican border, establish a “deportation force,” place new restrictions on immigration from some majority Muslim countries, repeal Obamacare and spend $1 trillion on infrastructure, were left out by him while announcing his plans.
Republican measures could struggle in the Senate as Democrats will hold 48 seats next year, enough to block the measures. Trump has emphasized that his measures are completely focused on American workers.
“Whether it’s producing steel, building cars, or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland: America — creating wealth and jobs for American workers,” CNN quoted President-elect Trump, as saying in the two-and-a-half-minute video statement.
“As part of this plan, I’ve asked my transition team to develop a list of executive actions we can take on day one to restore our laws and bring back our jobs,” he added.
Trump said among his first actions would be to “issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Transpacific Partnership” and replace it with negotiating “fair bilateral trade deals.” President- elect promised to “investigate all abuses of visa programs that undercut the American worker.”
In the meantime,a small number of influential Republicans in the Senate are threatening to block appointments to Trump’s administration, derail his thaw with Russia and prevent the planned wall on the border with Mexico.
